Development Finance International
8 October - Reducing Inequality: Do the IMF, World Bank and Other Global Institutions Have an Impact?
New Rules for Global Finance, in collaboration with its partners released the 2014 Global Financial Governance & Impact Report
. Chaired by DFI Director Matthew Martin, the launch event kicked off with a keynote speech by Thomas Bernes, former Executive Director at the IMF and head of IMF’s IEO and high-level official at the World Bank and regional development banks. After a presentation of the report’s findings on the governance and impact of key international financial rule-making bodies (G20, IMF, World Bank, FSB, UN and OECD), panelists from the IMF, Jubilee Bolivia and InterAction discussed the challenges of assessing the development impact of financial institutions and development finance in developing countries, with a particular focus on the impact on poverty and inequality.
7 October - Sovereign Debt Restructuring That Works for All
DRI participated in this workshop co-sponsored by the Center for Innovation in Global Governance (CIGI) and New Rules for Global Finance, and hosted by Jubilee USA. Participants from developing countries, civil society and think tanks discussed current proposals for reforming sovereign debt restructuring processes, ranging from clauses in bond agreements to fair and transparent arbitration. This workshop is part of a consultation on sovereign debt restructuring organised by New Rules for CIGI.
21 August - Domestic Resource Trends for Education
The "Financing Education for All: domestic resource trends for education in developing countries" brief was produced by GSW to coincide with the Global Partnership for Education's (GPE) replenishment conference on 26th June 2014. GPE is the only multilateral partnership devoted to getting all children in the world's poorest countries into school and learning. This partnership of governments, civil society, international organisations, students, teachers unions, foundations, and the private sector together help developing countries access critical technical and financial resources, to achieve their education goals. On June 26th all partners met to pledge new resources for the period 2015-2018.
20 August - Health Care For The Poorest: Are Governments Delivering On Their Commitments?
GSW produced “Providing health care for the world’s poorest: are governments delivering on their commitments?”, a brief to inform and support Oxfam and partners health campaigning. Using GSW data it analyses progress by developing countries - with a focus on Africa - in meeting two key financial targets for health spending. It finds that far too many countries are not meeting these targets, and investment in health in many countries is not growing at a sufficiently ambitious level. It concludes that with less than 500 days to go to fulfill the MDGs, this is no time to be reducing or slowing down spending. Estimates suggest that in 2015 one million child deaths will still need to be prevented to achieve the MDG goal 4 of cutting child deaths by two-thirds. On current progress, the world will not meet MDG 4 until 2028, which is 13 years later than the target deadline. Meanwhile, to meet the target of reducing maternal mortality by two-thirds, progress would need to be quadrupled between now and 2015.
24-25 June - OECD/OIF Consultations on Redefining ODA, Paris
Following the ministerial meeting on redefining ODA in Washington in April, DFI helped OIF and the Commonwealth Secretariat to mobilise developing country officials for this OECD seminar. Twelve countries contributed their views on preferred sources and types of development finance, and how the OECD should define and publish statistics on ODA and other flows. They strongly urged the OECD to i) ensure that tracking flows “beyond ODA” did not mean diluting OECD country commitment to 0.7% targets for ODA; ii) track aid in ways which are more helpful to their planning processes – eg aid which goes through their budgets, and uses their national systems; iii) harmonise methods of calculating concessionality with those of the IMF, using a single 5% discount rate, rather than a risk-weighted calculation which could encourage higher lending to the most indebted countries; and iv) monitor other genuinely development-oriented flows (official or private sector), in NET terms, and through a collaborative process involving the UN, MDBs and NGO/Foundation coordination organisations. A letter by OIF developing countries addressed to the DAC following the meeting is currently being finalised.
